Vice principal hangs self after accident

O CAPTAIN!Investigators of the South Korean ferry sinking said the captain was not on the bridge when the ship started to list, with a junior officer at the wheel

Reuters, MOKPO and JINDO, South Korea

Members from the South Korean Navy’s ship salvage unit work on a buoy to mark the capsized passenger ship Sewol as they take part in a rescue operation in the sea off Jindo, South Korea, yesterday.

Photo: Reuters

The vice principal of a South Korean high school who accompanied hundreds of his pupils on what turned out to be a disastrous ferry trip has committed suicide, police said yesterday, as hopes faded of finding any of the 268 missing passengers alive.

Kang Min-gyu, 52, had been missing since Thursday. He appeared to have hanged himself with his belt from a tree outside a gym in the port city of Jindo where relatives of the people missing on the ship, mostly children from the school, were gathered.

Police said Kang did not leave a suicide note and that they started looking for him after he was reported missing by a fellow teacher. He was rescued from the ferry after it capsized on Wednesday

Of the 475 passengers and crew on the ferry, 28 people had officially been declared dead before Kang’s suicide and 179 were rescued. The overwhelming majority of the missing are students from the Danwon High School on the outskirts of Seoul, who were on a holiday trip.

Divers are fighting strong tides and murky waters to get to the sunken ship, but the likelihood of finding any of the missing alive is slim.

At the high school in Ansan, an industrial town near Seoul, many friends and family of the missing gathered in somber silence, with occasional sounds of sobbing breaking the quiet.

“When I first received the call telling me the news, at that time I still had hope,” said Cho Kyung-mi, who was waiting for news of her missing 16 year-old nephew at the school.

“And now it’s all gone,” Cho said.

In the classrooms of the missing, fellow students have left messages on desks, blackboards and windows, asking for the safe return of their missing friends.

“If I see you again, I’ll tell you I love you, because I haven’t said it to you enough,” one message read.

Investigations into the sinking, South Korea’s worst maritime accident in 21 years based on possible casualties, have centered on possible crew negligence, problems with cargo stowage and structural defects of the vessel, although the ship appears to have passed all of its safety and insurance checks.

The 69-year old ship captain has also come under scrutiny after witnesses said he was among the first to escape the sinking vessel that was on a 400km voyage from the port city of Incheon to the South Korean holiday island of Jeju.

According to investigators, Captain Lee Joon-seok was not on the bridge at the time the Sewol ferry started to list sharply, with a junior officer at the wheel.

“I’m not sure where the captain was before the accident. However right after the accident, I saw him rushing back into the steering house ahead of me,” said Oh Young-seok, one of the helmsmen on the ship who was off duty and resting at the time.

“He calmly asked by how much the ship was tilted, and tried to rebalance the ship,” said Oh, who was speaking from a hospital bed in the city of Mokpo yesterday, where those injured in the incident have been taken.

Handing over the helm is normal practice on the voyage from Incheon to Jeju that usually takes 13.5 hours, according to local shipping crew.

Divers gained access to the cargo deck of the ferry yesterday, although that was not close to the passenger quarters, according to a coastguard official.

Other coastguard officials said that divers made several attempts to make it to the passenger areas but failed.